A bootloader for the rest of us

A nice graphical GUI to a boot manager really matter's to me when I want to reboot. Something as good looking as this would be nice to have when choosing which partition to boot from. The simple Apple logo, Windows logo and the Linux logo. I'd feel proud of a boot manager that does that. Looking at a black screen with white text is VERY boring and Apple proved their point to sexiness when it comes to choose the OS you want before startup.

For the people who don't want to hold OPTION to use the regular bootloader, specifically #4:

Just go into System Preferences, select the Windows partition, and then click Reboot. No need to wait around.

Why bother with the option key or anything? I just use the startup disk pref pane, and reboot from there. It'll reboot just where you tell it to. And boot camp gives windows the same control panel preference to do it from there too.

#4, #7, thanks a bunch!

#6, it sounds like your friend is looking for a BIOS bootloader like 'lilo' or similar.

That sounds nice, since in my distraction I often miss the alt key and have to reboot twice.

But there's a problem!

Then I would have to admit that I have indeed a bootcamp partition just to play games.

I agree with #4. First post in awhile that made me laugh (in a good way).

I have a friend who uses OSX86 on a old Dell desktop. He also uses Windows XP natively on that same Dell but on a different drive.

He wants to know if there is a BIOS version of this software, or another type of software, that has nice interface for choosing the OS?

Having to hold down the option key really is annoying, and it's a bigger turn off to Boot Camp that some people might think. I usually have so many programs open that when I restart it takes 2 or 3 minutes for OS X to shut them all down and restart. If I have to be around to hit the option key to invoke the bootloader, this means I have to sit around for 2 or 3 minutes watching the beach ball spin, waiting for the startup chime, when I could be using those 2 or 3 minutes to get up and make a cup of tea or do something else productive.

What a well writen blog entry. Thank you.

Actually it has far less to do with Boot Camp than you'd think. If you read the FAQ at the rEFIt page it has a nice rundown on what Boot Camp does -- gives you drivers, partitions your disk mostly. The EFI bootloader is entirely separate from Boot Camp and does not need it to function.